Opinions differ a lot when it comes to parrot diet. It's my understanding that most parrots, other than lories, have pretty similar requirements, so there probably is not going to be a large difference between what's right for Paco and what's right for most other parrots. Lories mostly just eat fruit and nectar, and I'm told the eclectus need more fruit that most parrots but I don't really know for sure (I'd probably pay more attention to that sort of thing if I actually owned an eclectus, but I don't).

For a long time, parrots were often fed all-seed diets, and that's now widely recognized as a bad idea. Seeds aren't really bad, but they aren't a complete diet either. There are pellet manufacturers who claim that their pellets are a complete diet and that nothing else is necessary. I don't know of any hard evidence one way or the other, but I do know a couple of people who have raised generations of healthy birds by feeding almost entirely pelleted diets. Most folks I know feed some pellets and some fresh foods. Personally my birds' diets at about half pellets and half fresh foods and I'm working on raising the pellet part of that ratio on my vet's advice. One of my birds is a pretty picky eater though, which makes it hard to change her diet.

There are a few articles in the 'links' section of this web site with more information about parrot diets.

Whoops.... that was me, but I forgot I was still logged in as "administrator."

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA